Officials defend dam against attacks

Queensland's senior public servants have defended claims the
$1.7 billion Traveston Dam site was chosen before any testing of
other options was completed.

Senators Ian Macdonald and Barnaby Joyce questioned a panel of
representatives from the Queensland Government who made submissions
to the senate inquiry today.

Senator Macdonald received large applause from the Save the Mary
Valley supporters at the inquiry when he asked why the Premier
launched the Traveston Crossing site on April 27, 2006, two months
before a detailed study of potential dam sites was finalised.

The panel, including coordinator general Ken Smith, said the
Premier announced it as "the preferred site", subject to
geotechnical and engineering studies.

Senator Barnaby Joyce asked if there had been any geotechnical
assessment of other options before the Premier released the
decision

"I am fascinated, because apparently you did all this work after
the dam was announced," he said.

Director-General, of the Department of Natural Resources and
Water Scott Spencer said the Queensland Government submission - the
only submission supporting construction of the Traveston Crossing
Dam - contained 12 volumes of attachments.

"Many of those documents are part of these attachments,'' he
said.

The panel earlier told the inquiry the Traveston Crossing site
was chosen because a Gutteridge, Haskins and Davies (GHD)
report of 80 sites ranked it number one in terms of water yield and
four in terms of water cost.

Queensland Water Infrastructure chief executive Graeme Newton
told the meeting that 279 of 467 property valuations had been
settled, representing about 47 per cent of the land that is
required.

The panel also told the inquiry that a capital gains rollover
tax agreement was almost finalised, which would also help
landholders.

The panel gave information on evaporation from the preferred dam
site.

They told the hearing the overall evaporation was 520mm, but the
"pan" evaporation, or net evaporation loss was 1.4 metres per year,
which included seepage.

Earlier in the day, University of Queensland geomechanical
professor David Williams told the inquiry he also estimated
evaporation at 1.4 metres per year, but warned the alluvial soil
could result in seepage of 3.2 metres per year.

The inquiry was told the 70,000 megalitre yield from stage one
of the Traveston Crossing proposal was "quite conservative" and
water flow would be maintained until the proposed dam was built by
2011.

They also warned about trying to take more than 40,000
megalitres year from the nearby Borumba Dam.

Queensland Water Infrastructure's Barry Dennien said even taking
50,000 megalitres would impact on the dam.

"You could go for 70 years without the dam filling and that
would be the case if you took 50,000 megalitres from it," he
said.

The senate inquiry will next sit have on May 11.

The inquiry also requested copies of all reports on the
Traveston Crossing decision to be made available to the senators
before the next sittings.

The panel said they would take advice and "formally reply" to
the inquiry.

They were also asked to provide updated water catchment figures
and data about the water licenses operating in the Mary River
Valley.